WHEN Nikita Khrushchev took the podium on the last day of the Communist Party congress 50 years ago today, his words were so shocking that some fainted. The Soviet leader had done the unthinkable, denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin, who had died three years earlier, as a fanatical tyrant who had hundreds of thousands of citizens executed or sent to prison camps. So sensitive was Khrushchev’s “secret speech” that his daughter, Rada Adzhubei, did not learn of it for two weeks, when excerpts were read out at party meetings. “I was shocked, like everyone else,” Mrs Adzhubei, now 76, told The Times in her apartment a few hundred yards from the Kremlin. “Millions knew about these things, but millions did not know. And we were all brought up in an atmosphere where Stalin was the great leader — it was in the air we breathed.” ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk

A Chinese orphanage director and nine other people have been given jail sentences for buying and selling dozens of babies who were then adopted abroad. Another 22 officials in central China's Hunan province have been sacked over the trade, which ran from 2002 to 2005. In 2005 alone, 78 babies were bought and sold on to orphanages which offered them to adoptive parents, who made donations, Xinhua news agency said. The nationalities of the foreign adopters are not known. The court heard the infants trafficked were bought in China's southern Guangdong province and sold on to six orphanages for 3,200-4,000 yuan ($400 to $540) each. Chen Ming, the director of Hengdong Social Welfare Home in Hengyang, Hunan, was sentenced to one year in prison for his role but is on the run. Most of the sacked officials worked at the children's homes involved. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4749878.stm

Two further arrests have been made in connection with the £50m Securitas robbery in Kent. Kent Police said two men, aged 55 and 33, were arrested in the Maidstone area on Saturday on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery. Earlier, officers said they had pieced together the events leading up to the heist, including the kidnapping of the depot manager and his family. The force also released a computer image of another raider. The image of one of the two men who abducted Lynn Dixon and her son, Craig, shows a man wearing dark-style police clothing and possibly a wig and a false moustache. He is described as white, skinny, 6ft to 6ft 2in, and in his mid to late 40s. He had a pasty complexion and a long thin nose, thin lips, a bony chin, thick, brown unkempt hair and a bushy dark brown moustache. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/4749980.stm

An elementary school teacher was arrested Friday on charges she had sex with one of her 11-year-old students, authorities said.Wendie A. Schweikert, 36, was booked on two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor after a parent of the boy accused the teacher of having sex with him at school at least twice, Laurens Police Chief Robin Morse said.Authorities said Schweikert remained in jail Friday afternoon and a bond hearing was set for Saturday. A message left at her home was not returned Friday evening....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11553555/from/RSS/

A high-profile U.S. Korean War veteran, visiting Seoul at the behest of local veterans, this week delivered a scathing attack on the Bush administration for a policy of "name-calling and accusation" toward North Korea. J. Robert Lunney, 78, was an officer on the SS Meredith Victory, recognized by Guinness World Records as having performed the largest rescue ever by a single vessel, when, in an epic last-minute effort, it evacuated 14,000 refugees from the port of Hungnam in December 1950 as communist forces closed in. "I do feel, personally, that reconciliation can come through negotiations and talking, not through name-calling and accusations," Mr. Lunney said of Washington's policy toward Pyongyang. "We should be able to, as I have done in North Korea, sit down and work with the North Koreans to resolve some of the problems; some problems can be resolved through trade, and possibly tourism." ...http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060224-111532-8876r.htm

Britain's net industry has named the UK presidency of the EU as its villain of the year. The Internet Service Providers' Association (Ispa) singled out the UK for its role in pushing for Europe-wide data retention laws. The laws, requiring telecom operators to store phone and internet data to help fight terrorism, received its final go-ahead earlier this week. Net companies are concerned about the cost of holding and managing the data. The measures were proposed by the UK after the bomb attacks in London in July. It campaigned hard during its six-month presidency of the EU for the new legislation, arguing it was necessary to help fight terrorism and organised crime.It really has nothing to with fighting the Boogieman or crime, it was just the excuse used to get access to everyone. Big Brother has a big appetite and wants to know everything...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4744304.stm